Coming Home
by FreelyBeYourself
Summary: After fourth year, Harry is treated worse than ever by the Dursleys. He is taken out of Privet Drive by Sirius and Remus. At Grimmauld Place he begins to discover the true meaning of family, and learns what it feels like to finally come home after being away for so long. Warning: mentions and minor descriptions of physical abuse. Rated T for safety. TEMPORARILY discontinued. Sorry.
1. Chapter 1

**I apologize for the long author's note, but there are some things that need explaining, so please read this. First: this takes place early in the summer after Harry's fourth year. Second: Harry is abused in this story, but there's not too much of it actually described in detail. Third: Sirius becomes a free man. He and Remus are best friends, NOT a couple (I don't have a problem with slash, but I don't write slash. If you want to interpret it that way, though, then that's fine.) **

** Also, and maybe this doesn't make a difference, but I'm American. That means I speak American English. I don't exactly know how to use certain British phrases. Sorry about that. Harry is British, and I would have loved to keep him as much in character as possible, but hey. Who knows; maybe I didn't do a horrible job.**

** I own nothing. All rights belong to JK Rowling and Warner Bros. I don't earn any profit whatsoever; this writing is merely for fun. **

Twelve years in Azkaban, a daring escape from said prison, two years in hiding, countless attempts at finding evidence, and an extra strong dose of Veritaserum….and it all came down to this.

Sirius Black sat in a chair in the middle of a large courtroom, feeling a lot like an animal on display in a zoo. Wizards and witches of all sizes, shapes, ethnicities, and ages were staring down at him from every side, but he focused on the ones in front of him; the ones that would be determining his fate.

"All those in favor of conviction?" Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, asked the Wizengamot. Sirius hardly dared to look around, unable to take his eyes off the Minister of Magic. Fudge counted the votes quickly.

"All those in favor of clearing the accused of all charges?" This time, Sirius couldn't help it. His eyes strayed from Fudge and roamed the room. He held his breath as first one, then two, and then a dozen more witches and wizards began raising their hands. Fudge counted the votes, but he hardly needed to. It was obvious that far more than half of the people gathered in the room had their hands raised. Sirius turned back to face the Minister. The verdict wouldn't be official until it came directly from Fudge's lips.

"Sirius Orion Black, this Wizengamot finds that you are innocent. You are hereby cleared of all charges. You will receive one year in Azkaban for being an unregistered animagus, however, since you've already served more than your fair share of time in prison, you will be allowed to return to your home as a free man, and a notice of your full pardon will be distributed throughout the Wizarding and Muggle worlds immediately. As retribution for your unfair incarceration, you will receive one thousand galleons for each of the twelve years you were imprisoned, minus one year for being an unregistered animagus. Dismissed."

The room began to clear, and Sirius rose from his seat, turning to face the friends who had come to watch his trial.

"Remus!" Sirius exclaimed. "Remus, I'm free!" Remus Lupin, for his part, didn't speak; instead, he gathered his best friend into his arms and hugged him, a grin lighting up his face and making him appear much younger than he really was.

"You did it, Sirius!" Hermione Granger cheered, jumping up and down enthusiastically. Sirius laughed and pulled her in for a hug, too.

"Congratulations, Mr. Black," Professor McGonogall nodded. She didn't smile, but Sirius could see that her eyes were alight with happiness.

Dumbledore, Ron and Ginny Weasley, Fred and George Weasley, Arthur and Molly Weasley, Mad Eye Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and even Severus Snape each took a turn congratulating the ex-convict, and together the group left the Ministry, using the floo network to get back to Grimmauld Place, Sirius' previous hiding place.

"I can't wait to tell Harry," Sirius exclaimed, unable to sit still now that he'd been cleared.

"Well, why don't you send him an owl right now, dear?" Mrs. Weasley was being much more friendly now that she was one hundred percent sure that Sirius wasn't a murderer. "You can borrow Pigwidgeon."

For a moment, Sirius considered it. Then he shook his head. "Nah," he said with a grin. "I want to tell him in person."

"I'm afraid, Sirius, that it will have to wait until the first of August," Dumbledore cut in. "He must stay at his home in Privet Drive at least until then in order for the blood wards to remain in effect.

"Aw, come on, Albus," Sirius sighed. "Now that I'm free, I can protect him. I can be a much better guardian to him here than those Muggles ever have been."

"Be that as it may," Albus stated gravely, "Harry's protection must be ensured."

"Well, why don't we have some cake, then?" Molly Weasley asked, attempting to diffuse the tension. Sirius wasn't pleased with Dumbledore's assessment of the situation, but he was too thrilled at his freedom to argue. Following the group into the kitchen, Sirius cut the celebratory cake (which he noticed that Molly had baked long before they'd left Grimmauld Place for the trial) and dug in. His good mood increased when a familiar snowy owl flew into the kitchen from the main hallway. Pausing to rub Hedwig's feathers, Sirius smiled. Yes, it was good to be free.

****HP*****

Harry Potter was not having a good time.

The summer holidays were still young, and so far things in the Dursley household had been even worse than usual. No longer afraid of the threat of Sirius Black, the Dursleys were being more hateful than they'd ever been before. Harry had been locked in his bedroom once again, and for every day that passed, he was feeling more and more angry and claustrophobic. He hadn't been allowed to eat dinner with the Dursleys. He hadn't been allowed to send letters to his friends. He hadn't been allowed to use the telephone, to go for a walk, or even to read his spellbooks. He hadn't been allowed to look at the photo album of his parents that Hagrid had gifted him with in his first year.

In other words, Harry was alone. His owl, Hedwig, had been allowed out of her cage only because she kept waking uncle Vernon every night with her screeching. Harry saw his owl's freedom as a positive thing; however, it also meant that he was even lonelier than he'd been at the start of the summer. At the moment, Hedwig was out hunting. She'd been gone for three days, and Harry desperately wished she'd come back soon. He needed someone to talk to.

Footsteps echoed out in the hallway and Harry froze in place, listening intently to what was going on outside his bedroom door. Movement at the bottom of the door caught his eye and Harry watched with bated breath as the cat flap opened and a tray of food was pushed in. He was off his bed in half a second, rushing to the door and practically pouncing on the meal. It wasn't much, but it was more than he'd been fed since the start of the school break.

Forcing himself to eat slowly (knowing he'd be vomiting up his meager rations if he didn't take his time) Harry shoved the half-eaten dinner roll into his mouth. It was still warm, which was surprising. The Dursleys never gave him warm food these days. He then started on the dry salad, saving the carrots for last. Also on the tray was a quarter sleeve of crackers, a glass of water, and a piece of paper. The crackers he saved for later, stuffing the sleeve under the loose floorboards so that his aunt wouldn't notice them. He downed half the water in one gulp, forcing himself to leave the other half. He'd drink it later tonight. Sighing as he flopped back onto his bed, he looked at the piece of paper. It was a note from Uncle Vernon.

_Freak,_

_ Your aunt and I are taking Dudley to the movies. If you do anything while we're gone, I'll beat you to death. Stay put. _

_ Uncle Vernon_

Harry rolled his eyes at the note. There really wasn't much he could do, trapped in his room as he was with no wand, no owl, and no way to get out. Surely Uncle Vernon knew this, and was capitalizing on the opportunity to threaten Harry once again. Not that Harry didn't take the threat seriously; he knew very well that Uncle Vernon would follow through.

A car started in front of the house, and Harry watched from his window as the Dursleys pulled away and drove down the street. He was really and truly alone, now. At least before there had been someone else in the house. Even if the Dursleys did nothing but torment him, Harry was glad to know that he wasn't the only living creature in the world. The current loneliness he was feeling was almost painful. He hadn't had any letters all summer (well, that wasn't technically true; Ron and Hermione had both sent him letters, but at that point the bars had been on his window and the owls couldn't get through) and he was beginning to think that even his friends had forgotten about him. This left him feeling very depressed.

Hedwig chose that moment to soar through the open window, landing on the desk with a gentle thud. She stuck out her leg, and Harry noticed a letter attached there. He stood, fighting off a wave of dizziness as he made his way to the beautiful snowy owl and untied the letter. The bird gave a soft hoot, nipped gently at his fingers, and flew into her cage to rest. He eagerly opened the letter, desperate to see who had remembered him.

_Harry, _

_ I'm sorry I haven't written to you sooner. I've been busy with something important – I can't wait to tell you all about it, but I want to tell you in person. I was going to send you a letter tomorrow, but Hedwig appeared this morning and I took the opportunity. Right smart bird, Hedwig is._

_ How's your summer going? Dumbledore says you must stay with the Dursleys until the end of July at least, in order for the wards protecting you to remain intact. I'm sorry about that, Prongslet; I'd been hoping that you could get out of there and stay with me or the Weasleys. _

_ I hope those Muggles have been treating you right. _

_ Keep your head down, and stay out of trouble. Someone will be there on the first of August to get you. _

_ See you soon, kiddo._

_ Sirius_

Harry felt a grin building on his face as he read Sirius's letter. His godfather hadn't forgotten his existence, after all. It was unfortunate that he'd have to wait another whole month to be rescued from his current situation, but Harry marked the date on his calendar, hope building in him as he held onto the fact that he would, in fact, be rescued. Digging a Muggle pen out from under the loose floorboards, Harry tore a page from a Muggle encyclopedia that Dudley had left in the room and began writing a note back to his godfather. Hedwig watched his movements.

_Sirius, _

_ I'm glad to hear from you. I was worried. _

_ Prongslet? I don't even want to know. _

_ What have you been so busy doing? You can't just tell me something like that and not elaborate. I'm Harry Potter; curiosity is my middle name. Come on, Sirius; August is a whole month away. I can't wait that long to know what you've been up to. What are you being so secretive about? _

_ Do I really have to stay with the Dursleys? I know the wards are important, but I'd rather be with you, or with Ron and Hermione. The Muggles are treating me fine…they're treating me like they always do. _

_ Thanks for writing, Sirius. _

_ Harry_

_ PS – Sirius Black, telling someone to stay out of trouble? I think I hear the world ending. Don't worry about me. There's not much trouble I can get into here. _

It was true, Harry sighed. He was locked in his bedroom, being fed one meal every two or three days. There wasn't much he could do. He was dehydrated, he was hungry, and he wasn't sure he had enough energy to pace his room, let alone get into any trouble. He had half a mind to tell Sirius this and beg to be rescued immediately, but he didn't want to cause any inconvenience. Sirius was still on the run from the Ministry of Magic, and the Weasleys wouldn't be able to pull off another rescue attempt, Harry was sure. Remus Lupin might be able to do something, but Harry had a feeling that his old professor had more important things to take care of. No; it was best that Harry just keep silent about what was going on and hope that the first of August came quickly.

"Hedwig," Harry called, and the bird hooted expectantly. "Are you too tired to deliver a letter for me, girl?" He half expected the owl to hoot indignantly and go to sleep, but the bird surprised him by soaring out of her cage and landing on his outstretched arm. She nipped his fingers gently, turning amber eyes to stare into his own. "Take this to Sirius, please. If you're tired, he won't mind letting you stay there for a day or two." The owl hooted again, gave him a final nip, and waited for him to tie the letter to her leg. Then she was off, flying back out the window and into the rapidly darkening sky.

Harry had no idea where Sirius was hiding, but he knew it would be a few hours, at least, before the older man even got the letter Hedwig was carrying. The owl would need to rest, and then it would be another few hours before Harry would have a reply. He sighed, settling back onto his bed, mentally calculating another three-day stint of complete loneliness. It would probably be at least that long since he'd get food again, too, seeing as he'd been given such a large meal today. There was also the matter of Uncle Vernon's threat. The note he'd gotten with his dinner had said that he'd be beaten for leaving his room, but he was sure his uncle would find an excuse to flay him whether he left his bedroom or not.

With that unpleasant thought in mind Harry closed his eyes and fell into a restless sleep, waking repeatedly after dreaming about the graveyard. Each dream was always the same; a flash of green light, Cedric's lifeless body, and unimaginable pain as he was hit with the Cruciatus Curse.

*****HP*****

Sirius paced his room, Harry's letter clenched in his fist. The way it was written was odd, Sirius thought. For one thing it wasn't written on parchment. Sirius didn't recognize the writing surface, but it was clearly something Muggle. From the looks of it, it was a page from some kind of Muggle textbook. The ink, too, was wrong. Sirius could easily tell that Harry's letter hadn't been written with a quill, but instead with a Muggle pen. This, he supposed, wasn't cause for concern in and of itself. After all, Harry lived in a house with Muggles. It was entirely possible that he'd run out of parchment, and maybe a Muggle pen was the most convenient writing instrument Harry could find.

Pacing another lap across the room, Sirius held up the letter and read through it for the umpteenth time. One part in particular caught his eye.

_The Muggles are treating me fine…they're treating me like they always do._

Sirius frowned, reading this line over and over. There was something wrong with it, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. It was just over a year ago that he'd first had an actual conversation with his godson since his escape from Azkaban. It hadn't bothered him, at the time, that Harry had gone from believing that Sirius was a murderer to agreeing to live with him in the space of half an hour. Now that he thought about it, though, it did seem sort of strange. Murderer or not, godfather or not, Sirius had, at the time, been a complete stranger in Harry's eyes. Why would Harry have agreed so quickly to living with him?

It wasn't for nothing that Sirius Black had once been one of the best aurors in the entire Wizarding world. He knew how to spot a fishy situation, and this certainly seemed strange. Why he hadn't noticed it back when he'd first had the conversation with Harry was beyond him, though he supposed that it must have been his excitement over finally meeting his teenage godson. Now, however, the slip in his attention was eating at him. What could possibly be a good enough reason for a teenage boy to willingly (and even happily) agree to go and live with someone who had been convicted of betraying the boy's parents to the most evil wizard to ever live?

"Remus," Sirius called, knowing that Remus would hear him, thanks to his enhanced werewolf senses. Sure enough, Sirius heard quiet footsteps coming up the stairs towards his room.

"What's wrong, Sirius?" The werewolf asked from the doorway, eyeing his best friend worriedly as Sirius continued to attempt to wear a visible track into the floor as he paced.

"When you were teaching Prongslet," he started, using their nickname for Harry, "Did you ever notice anything… strange… about him?" It wasn't the right word, but it was the only one that came to mind. Remus paused.

"I'm not sure what you mean," the werewolf frowned. Sirius huffed; he wasn't sure how to explain it.

"I mean, did you ever notice anything…" but the words wouldn't come. Sirius himself wasn't sure what he was trying to say. All he knew was that his auror instincts were telling him that something was wrong, and his godfather instincts were backing that opinion.

"Sirius, what's this about?" Remus asked, noticing Sirius's difficulty and trying to help him find a way to explain what was bothering him.

"I just have a bad feeling," Sirius explained, causing Remus's forehead to crease. Whenever Sirius had a 'bad feeling', it usually meant that something was very wrong.

"About Harry?"

"Yes," Sirius agreed. "About Harry."

"Explain," Remus was instantly on alert. Sirius frowned.

"I'm not sure that I can, Remus. It's just… that night," he said, and Remus instantly knew which night he was referring to. "Why would he agree to live with me? It was my word against Peter's that I wasn't a mass murderer, and yet when I asked him, he seemed thrilled at the chance to live with me. Why would he so quickly agree to live with someone who had potentially betrayed his parents to Voldemort?"

Remus frowned. "I'm not sure," he said. "You're right. That's… strange."

"Yes."

"That's not all," Remus stated. Sirius glanced up at his best friend.

"No," he agreed. "Harry sent me this letter." He held up the textbook page with Harry's writing on it. Remus raised an eyebrow, asking to see the letter. Sirius handed it to him.

"It's a Muggle textbook," Remus came to the same conclusion as Sirius had.

"Read the letter, though," Sirius prodded, continuing to pace the floor, watching Remus as the werewolf's eyes sought out Harry's writing.

"It's not written with a quill," Remus noted.

"No, it's written with a Muggle pen."

"So?"

"Read it more closely. Does anything seem…off?"

"He doesn't seem to want to stay with the Muggles anymore," Remus hesitated. Sirius nodded, watching Remus's face closely as the werewolf thought. "Do you think there's more going on there than he's letting on?"

Sirius flinched, halting in his tracks so fast that he almost tripped.

"Do _you?_" Sirius asked, voice dangerous. Both men knew what Remus had meant.

"I think we should keep an eye on the situation," Remus said carefully. "Sirius, maybe there's nothing going on. Maybe we're reading into this something that isn't there. If you were Harry, and you knew your friends were having fun in the Wizarding world, would you really want to stay with a bunch of Muggles?"

"No," Sirius admitted. "I guess you're right. Still, something feels wrong."

Remus didn't say anything, but Sirius could tell from his friend's expression that the man agreed with him. Vowing to pay more attention to Harry's letters in the future, Sirius and Remus sat down together to write to the boy they each included as part of their family.

*****HP*****

It had been four days since he'd sent Hedwig off with a letter to Sirius, and there was still no sign of either the bird or a reply from his godfather. Harry had been right in his assumptions that Uncle Vernon would make up some false story about something he had done wrong as an excuse to punish him further. Wincing as he moved to the loose floorboards, Harry dug out the crackers he'd buried when he'd gotten his last meal. However, he was forced to spit the first bite out the window. Swallowing was painful, thanks to Uncle Vernon's attempts at strangling him to death. Harry desperately wished Hedwig would return with a letter; he hadn't seen or heard from any of the Dursleys in over 48 hours now, and the solitude was driving him crazy.

Dragging his sore, bruised body to his desk, the young wizard heaved himself into his chair. The effort was painful and left him breathless. He leaned over the desk for a moment, attempting to regain control of himself, before he turned to look out the window. He had been watching the sky almost constantly for the past six hours, trying to spot his beloved snowy owl. So far, he hadn't seen any movement at all.

Harry was feeling anxious. His owl was missing, the Dursleys weren't making any noise, he'd not heard from anyone, and it would still be another five hours before it was dark. He knew that once again the Dursleys wouldn't let him out to use the bathroom, so he was desperately trying to ignore his bladder until it was dark enough to relieve himself out the window. This was unpleasant, but it wasn't something he hadn't dealt with before. To top it all off his body hurt and he hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. Thoughts of Cedric and the graveyard and Voldemort's return were plaguing him, and sleep was impossible. As if that wasn't enough, Harry could feel that he was becoming ill.

Uncle Vernon chose that moment to storm down the hall. Harry could hear his uncle's loud footsteps, and all too soon the many locks on the bedroom door were rattling. Harry froze, genuine fear causing him to swallow a lump in his throat. He counted the locks as they were opened. At the click of the fifth one the door swung open, and Harry was met with a very angry Uncle Vernon.

"Boy!" his uncle yelled, spit flying from his mouth and face purple. With a sinking feeling Harry realized that the man was drunk. He didn't bother to reply; no words would have stopped what came next.

Harry's hands raised instinctively to cover his face as Uncle Vernon's fist came at his nose. The punch missed its mark, landing on Harry's shoulder instead, probably because Uncle Vernon was too drunk to aim properly. Still, the blow was painful and Harry staggered backwards. The still-fourteen-year-old watched in mute horror as his uncle slowly removed his belt, a ferocious grin on his face. Harry closed his eyes and mentally escaped to a happier place. He felt the blows of the belt leaving painful marks on his body; he felt blood begin to spatter his arms and legs and back. In his mind's eye, however, he was in a quiet meadow, watching his father and mother tossing a Quaffle back and forth as Sirius and Remus charmed flowers to sing the ABCs over and over. Harry began mentally chanting the alphabet along with the daisies and tulips, using the repetitive sequence of letters to ground him to reality.

The beating didn't last as long as the one the other night, and Harry soon found himself alone once more, locked in his room, lying on the floor painfully. When had he fallen over? He had no idea.

Thankfully, Hedwig had the uncanny ability of appearing exactly when she was needed. The owl landed beside Harry's hand on the floor, dropping a letter from where it was clenched in her beak. Harry petted her as he read the parchment, which turned out to contain two letters in one.

_Harry,_

_ Your father's nickname was Prongs. Therefore, you are Prongslet. _

_ Last time I checked, kiddo, your middle name was James, not Curious._

_ I'm sorry, Harry, but I really want to tell you the news in person. Don't worry. I think it will be well worth the wait. _

_ Are you okay, kiddo? Maybe it's my imagination, but your last letter felt a little odd, for lack of a better phrase. Dumbledore wants you to stay on Privet Drive, yes, but if something's going on there that I should know about, I want to hear it from you, not from anyone else. _

_ Give Hedwig a rest before writing back to me, Prongslet. She seemed only too happy to leave with my letter after only twelve hours of rest, but it's really a long journey from my location to yours, and this is the third time she's made it recently. _

_ Looking forward to hearing your reply, and don't forget, August the first. See you then! _

_ Sirius_

Written underneath the letter from Sirius was another letter in a different hand. Harry recognized the writing as belonging to Remus Lupin, his werewolf ex-DADA teacher.

_Harry! _

_ I hope your summer is going well. I've been helping Sirius sort some things out. He's worried about you, Harry, and quite frankly so am I. I don't like the sight of those Muggle relatives of yours. I know Dumbledore wants you to stay with them for the rest of the month, but I may stop in at some point in the next week or so to say hi. _

_ If I know you, Harry, you'll be having trouble sleeping. Try to remember that what happened in June wasn't your fault. _

_ I'll be seeing you very soon. _

_ Remus_

Harry almost cried in relief. Remus was going to come and see him. Remus would see what was happening. Remus would take him out of there, or at the very least, Remus would stop the Dursleys from hurting him anymore.

Hedwig nibbled on his hand, and Harry looked into the owl's amber eyes.

"Are you okay?" she seemed to be asking, though no words were spoken. Harry was almost glad; he didn't want to have to add hallucinations to the list of things ailing him.

"Hedwig," he groaned softly, not daring to speak above a whisper. If Uncle Vernon heard him making any noise, he'd get beaten again. The owl softly hooted, and Harry was as relieved as he was surprised that she seemed to understand the need for silence. She nibbled at his ear this time, and Harry got the message. Dragging himself painfully into a sitting position, he slowly managed to climb into his bed.

"Hedwig," he groaned again, and the large bird landed beside him, piercing him with her gaze. She hooted again, and the sound was a reassuring one. Harry's vision was trying to blur, and the teen allowed it to do so. Within seconds he was unconscious.

****HP*****

Sirius was having a bad week. He was sure Harry had gotten his letter, and now he was regretting telling Harry to let Hedwig rest before sending back a reply. He needed to know that his godson was safe.

In the meantime, the full moon had caused enough of a distraction that Sirius was forced to put Harry in the back of his thoughts for a few hours. Remus had taken the wolfsbane potion as usual, but his worry over Harry had rendered some of the potion's effects inert. While Remus still remembered who he was after the transformation, the process was more painful than usual and Remus was quite shaken up when he became human once again. Sirius had sat by the bedside of his exhausted friend for hours, not wanting Remus to wake up alone.

Once Remus had recovered, however, the two had gone back to worrying over Harry. The wait for a reply was agonizingly slow, and not even Fred and George Weasley, Marauders-in-training, could distract the men from their brooding.

On the plus side, news of Sirius's innocence had been spread. The Daily Prophet had run an article every day since the hearing, and Dumbledore had ordered the Hogwarts paintings to move from place to place to tell as many people as possible of the news. Ron and Hermione were owling all of their friends, and Dobby the House Elf had also agreed to pass along the word to anyone who would listen. The Healers at St. Mungo's were doing their part, too, telling their patients that Sirius had not in fact committed the crimes he had been accused of.

The Order of the Phoenix had acquired new intelligence regarding the location of some of Voldemort's closest followers, and aurors were being dispatched to take care of the problem. The war was far from over, but for now, the light was winning.

Still, none of this was enough to take Sirius's mind away from Harry.

*****HP*****

When Harry next opened his eyes, it was dark out. He had the impression that he'd been unconscious for quite a long time. He forced himself to sit up, feeling his shirt sticking to the cuts in his back as he did. His arms and legs hurt, and his back felt as though it were on fire. As he moved he noticed that his pants were wet, and his face burned with humiliation when he realized that he'd wet himself. He surveyed his room quickly, trying to find any evidence of how much time had passed. Hedwig was in her cage sleeping, though she woke up quickly when Harry grunted in pain. He noticed that there was a bowl next to the door, and a cup next to the bowl. He knew the cup contained water, and from what he could tell the bowl was filled with dry cereal.

Harry cautiously made his way over to the bowl. He couldn't stand; his legs were too weak, and his muscles shook. Instead he half-crawled, half-dragged his body to the door. Taking a tentative bite of cereal and forcing it down, he realized that it was stale. If he had to guess, he'd say that it had been sitting out for about ten hours now. Not that that meant anything; it was entirely possible that Aunt Petunia had intentionally given him stale cereal.

Next, Harry turned to face out the window. He could see the moon from where he was. The last he knew it had been close to full, but now it was only just beginning to wane. He guessed that two to three days had passed. He couldn't tell if one day or two had passed since the full moon, but he thought that it must have been two. Idly, Harry wondered how Remus was doing after his latest transformation.

A concerned hoot from Hedwig got Harry's attention.

"Hey, girl," he muttered, trying and failing to haul himself back to bed. He collapsed on the floor, earning a squawk of worry from his pet. Hedwig soared from her cage and landed on the floor. Harry was amazed once again at his owl's intelligence as the bird took one look at him, flew up to his desk, and picked up Harry's pen before flying back to the teen. The note from Sirius and Remus was still on the floor, and the owl pushed it at Harry. Harry accepted the pen as Hedwig hooted at him. The meaning was clear: write a letter to Sirius.

Hand shaking, Harry turned over the letter and wrote two messy, desperate words on the parchment.

_Help me._

He didn't have enough energy to tie the letter to Hedwig's leg, but the owl seemed to realize this. She picked up the parchment in her beak, gave Harry one last look, and took off out the window before Harry had a chance to tell her where it needed to go. He figured she already knew, anyways.

Unable to fight back a sudden wave of nausea, Harry vomited. There wasn't much in his stomach, and the dry heaves hurt. Realizing with another blush that his pants were still wet, Harry tried to get to his wardrobe to change his clothes. The movement was too painful, and he collapsed once again, passing out before his head hit the floor.

**To be continued. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for taking so long between updates. I hadn't meant to. Something else came up and writing has been impossible until today. **

** Thank you so much for your reviews. I'm sending out a heartfelt thank you right here to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited, or followed. You all brought a smile to my face. **

** I don't own Harry Potter, but I thank JK Rowling for creating it. I make no profit from this. **

Sirius Black was, once again, pacing his room. It seemed that pacing was all he did these days. He would have thought that being officially free from Azkaban would be a cause for celebration, but his concern for his godson far outweighed any happy or celebratory feelings.

Speaking of Harry, Sirius hadn't yet gotten a letter back from the teen. This was something that had him very concerned; Harry never left a letter unanswered for such a long time. It had now been five days and Sirius hadn't heard even the slightest whisper from Harry. Granted, it was a long flight for Hedwig, and Sirius had warned Harry to give the bird a rest, but still.

At first Remus had more or less brushed most of Sirius's concerns aside. He'd told Sirius that Dumbledore knew what he was doing and that there was no way the silver-haired wizard would place Harry in any danger intentionally. Sirius had reluctantly agreed with this argument; after all, it was common knowledge that Dumbledore was incredibly protective of Harry. Now, though, even Remus seemed to be in doubt.

A knock at the door startled Sirius out of his thoughts. Spinning on his heel, he was confronted with none other than Remus Lupin himself. Behind the werewolf were Harry's best friends, Ron and Hermione.

"Good afternoon," Sirius smiled politely, nodding at the trio as an invitation to enter the room. They did so. Sirius observed his best friend as he surreptitiously watched Ron and Hermione fidget, uncomfortable in the current environment. Remus was looking pale and somewhat tired, but he seemed to have recovered alright from his transformation three nights before.

"Sirius," Remus sighed, getting right down to business. Sirius raised an eyebrow at his friend's urgent tone. "It's about Harry."

"What about Harry?" Sirius could have sworn he felt his blood freeze in his veins at the mention of his godson.

"We think there's something wrong," Hermione inserted.

"Ron and Hermione came to me a few moments ago, telling me that they feel that Harry could be in danger," Remus explained, and Sirius felt his forehead crease with worry. If Ron and Hermione thought something was wrong, than it almost certainly was.

"Why don't you explain?" Sirius directed his question at the teens. He was calm only outwardly. Mentally, he was a nervous wreck. He wanted nothing more than to turn on his heel with a dramatic sweep of his robes and apparate to Privet Drive. Ron and Hermione knew how much Sirius cared for Harry. They exchanged nervous looks. Sirius forced himself to be patient, falling back on his deeply engrained auror training.

"We both sent him letters right after school got out," Ron started. "I sent mine first, and Hermione sent hers a couple of days after. We thought everything was fine, but then two days later my letter came back unopened."

Remus and Sirius looked at each other, puzzled. Harry had responded to all of Sirius's letters. Why had he not replied to his best friends?

"I was prepared to ignore it," Ron explained. "My owl is really old. You know Errol. I thought he'd gotten lost or something."

"But…?" Remus prodded.

"But the next day, I got my letter back, too, and it hadn't been touched," Hermione explained when Ron turned to her to pick up the story. "The owl I used was younger and much more intelligent, no offense, Ronald, and there's no way he would have gotten lost."

"It's not like Harry to ignore a letter," Sirius said slowly. "Do you suppose it's possible that maybe the owls _did _get lost? Maybe they couldn't find Harry's house."

"I doubt that," Hermione said, giving Sirius a look that made him feel rather like a scolded toddler. "Besides, the owls were gone for exactly the length of time it would've taken to get from here to Harry's house and back."

"And you haven't tried sending letters to him since then?" Remus asked.

"No," Ron frowned. "We didn't want to get him in trouble."

This caused both Sirius and Remus to pause, before Sirius looked at the two still-nervous teens with worry.

"What do you mean, get him in trouble?"

"Well…" Hermione and Ron shared a look which Sirius recognized from his school days. It was a look that clearly said that the kids were about to betray a confidence which could get them in serious trouble later on. Sirius's feeling of unease increased.

"If it can help Harry, we need to know," Remus said, clearly reading the same thing in his former students' expressions as Sirius had.

"Harry gets in trouble for talking to us," Hermione sighed, determinedly looking anywhere but at the two adults in front of her. "His owl gets locked up over the summers and everything so that he can't communicate with what his uncle refers to as his 'freaky little friends'. And one time…"

"Yes, Hermione?" Sirius prodded, sensing that the most important piece of information was the one that the girl had just refrained from voicing aloud. Hermione looked at Ron.

"The summer before second year, Harry wasn't answering any of our letters," the redhead told Sirius and Remus. "Then one day Dad heard at work that he'd used underage magic, but the charm was one we'd never learned before in school, so none of us were really sure that it was him who did it. My brothers and I stole… erm… borrowed Dad's flying car and flew it to Harry's house. They were starving him. There were bars on his window, his door was locked from the outside, and Fred and George had a hard time collecting his school stuff because the Muggles had locked it in a cupboard under the stairs."

Hermione elbowed Ron to get him to shut up, Sirius noticed, but it was too late. He had already gotten the picture of what was going on.

"Remus, I'm going. Right now," Sirius shouted. Remus grabbed his arm to hold him in place.

"But Sirius, Dumbledore…"

"Forget about Dumbledore!" Sirius roared. "My godson isn't spending another moment in that house!"

"Sirius, we don't even know that any of that is still going on," Remus pleaded, trying to get Sirius to see reason. If they went running off to Privet Drive now, Harry could probably never go back there, and he _needed_ to go back there in order to ensure that he was protected from Voldemort for as long as possible.

"Remus, you said it yourself: _we don't know!"_ Sirius, exasperated, scrubbed a hand across his face. He couldn't apparate inside Grimmauld Place and Remus wasn't letting him leave, but he knew that he needed to get to Harry before something bad happened. It was an instinct. He just _knew_ something was going to go horribly wrong if he didn't get to Privet Drive immediately.

"Professor Lupin?" Hermione spoke up hesitantly, and Remus had to make a visible effort not to correct her. It wasn't the time to debate names and formalities. "I agree with Sirius."

It was shocking, really, Sirius thought. Hermione Granger was agreeing with a rash decision? But this only served to worry him further. If Hermione was all for going to Privet Drive, breaking down Harry's door and busting him out of there, then there must be something very bad going on. The girl wouldn't suggest something like this otherwise. She had too much sense.

Remus let go of Sirius's arm, clearly taking Hermione's comment as seriously as his best friend was.

"Alright," the werewolf said slowly. "Alright, but wait. We need proof that something's going on. We can't just turn up at Harry's house for no reason. Sirius, you do realize that our apparating there will alert the entire Order? They'll know what we're doing. And Dumbledore himself will try to stop us, I can guarantee that. We need absolute proof. We need a good reason for going. Otherwise, it'll have to wait until I make my scheduled visit in four days."

An urgent pecking at the window got the group's attention. Running over and opening the window, Sirius watched as an owl flew in. He would never say that Hedwig didn't have impeccable timing. In her beak she held a letter – the same letter that Sirius and Remus had sent to Harry days before. Flipping it over, Sirius felt his breath catch in his throat.

"What does it say?" Remus asked in concern.

Unable to respond, Sirius turned the paper around for Remus, Ron, and Hermione to see.

_Help me. _

"Is this proof enough, Remus?" Sirius asked, but the sarcasm was lost under the worry and fear in his tone. Remus turned to Ron and Hermione.

"Stay here. Go downstairs and tell the Order what's happened. Tell them everything you've just told me. Tell them we've gone to check on Harry and that we should be back soon."

Without another word the two Marauders were sprinting out of the room and down the stairs. They made no effort to be quiet, and they paid no attention to the screeching pictures that they left in their wake. Molly Weasley and Mad Eye Moody were talking near the bottom of the stairs. Both tried to find out what was going on as Sirius and Remus sprinted side by side towards the doorway with their wands already drawn, but neither man answered. Sirius noted in the back of his mind that Hermione had followed them down the stairs and was explaining the situation.

Reaching the Apparition point in the street in front of the house, Sirius and Remus disappeared with two separate but simultaneous _cracks._

****HP****

Harry was flying. He couldn't see where he was or what he was riding on, but it was a very safe feeling. He was only vaguely aware of his surroundings; he felt comfortable enough where he was that he didn't feel it necessary to check for any signs of danger. Nothing could harm him here.

Part of him registered that he'd been flying like this for quite a long time now. He wasn't uncomfortable and he wasn't bored of it, so he decided that it didn't really matter. For all he cared, he could float like this for eternity.

As soon as he had this thought, however, everything started to change. Whereas before he'd been flying along smoothly and gravity-free, now gravity was taking over. He was beginning to feel very heavy. He had the uncomfortable feeling of being pulled both up and down simultaneously. He still couldn't see much around him, but he could tell that everything was spinning. It was a horrible feeling. Suddenly he took a nosedive towards the ground, or whatever was below him, and even though he tried pulling back and slowing down and all sorts of other things, he continued to gain speed. He began to shake as his body got heavier and heavier, and he worried briefly that he would shake himself into pieces. Harry braced himself for impact as he sensed the ground rushing up to meet his face. _Crash._

In an overwhelming rush of senses, everything started coming back to him. He was in a lot of pain, lying on a hard, uncomfortable surface.

"Harry!" someone was shaking his shoulder hard enough to rattle his teeth. Harry thought that the voice was familiar, but he wasn't able to identify it.

"Sirius, hang on, I think he's coming around," another voice said calmly. "Harry? Can you hear me?"

Harry tried to summon the energy to respond, he really did, but it wasn't going to happen. Instead he focused on other things, such as the pain in his back and the burning in his throat. He couldn't remember what had caused any of this, but he had the feeling that it hadn't been pleasant to experience.

"Hang on," the second voice was saying again. "Let me try this first… Rennervate!"

Harry jerked as the spell did its job. The pain spiked, but so did his awareness. In a flash, he understood what was going on. He remembered what Uncle Vernon had done. He remembered sending a letter to Sirius asking for help before passing out on the floor. Sirius must have gotten his letter, then. Hadn't the second voice used Sirius's name? Harry thought that this was reasonable; of course his godfather would come for him. But who was the owner of the second voice? It was clearly someone who knew that Sirius wasn't a murderer, so…

"R….Remus," he groaned as realization hit him. Instantly a hand was placed on his shoulder.

"I'm here, Harry," Remus told him softly. "So is Sirius. We're going to take care of you. Don't worry. Just relax and try to stay awake, okay, cub?"

Part of him wanted to question the strange nickname, but he didn't have enough willpower to force the words through his burning throat. Instead he merely groaned, hoping that Remus and Sirius would be able to interpret the sound as one of both acquiescence and fear.

"I know, Harry," Sirius sighed. "Don't worry. We're going to take care of it. The Muggles can't touch you, okay?" The words brought more comfort to Harry than he would have expected.

"Remus, do you know any healing spells?" Harry heard Sirius ask.

"I know a few," Remus stated, and Harry thought that he didn't sound overly optimistic. "But I don't want to use them until I know exactly what's wrong. Neither of us are Healers, Sirius. We could do more harm than good."

"Well, we need to find someone who can help, then," Sirius urgently muttered. "He's suffering, Moony."

"I know, Sirius," Remus sounded impatient. Harry tried to open his eyes to see what was going on, but the light sent pain shooting through his head and his quickly squeezed his eyelids shut again.

"We can at least clean him up some," Sirius sighed. "Tergeo." There was a moment where Harry felt something being gently sucked off of his skin, and then he was left feeling decidedly cleaner.

"That takes care of the blood at least," Remus said, and Harry recognized that tone as being one Remus would use on a student such as Hermione who had done some incredible feat of magic in class. "I can heal some of the welts on his arms, too."

"Well, do it, then!" Sirius urged. There was a brief pause.

"Episkey," Remus murmured a few times, and Harry felt the painful marks on his arms begin to fade. "Harry, what else hurts?"

_My back,_ Harry tried to say, but he choked on his words and was forced to swallow down bile.

"Water," Sirius remarked out loud, as if the thought had just occurred to him. "I'll get you some water." There was a brief scuffling sound and then Harry heard a goblet being placed on the floor. "Aguamenti!"

"Harry, can you sit up to drink this?" Remus asked. Harry nodded slightly, and a hand went behind his head to support him as he weakly rose to a slightly elevated position. Someone placed the goblet to his lips and Harry sipped at the water. Instinct told him to gulp as much as possible, but experience with the Dursleys told him that if he followed his instinct he'd soon be retching. As soon as he swallowed the water, the fire in his throat began to vanish. He sighed in relief, sinking back onto the floor.

"I think he's dehydrated," he heard Sirius mutter. "Probably hasn't eaten in a long time, either."

"I think you're right," Remus agreed grimly. Harry wondered how they'd react if they found out exactly how long it had been since he'd had a real meal. "Look; we need help. I'm pretty sure he's not hurt too badly to move him, but I'd really rather not take any chances."

"Madam Pomfrey?" Sirius asked. Harry almost shouted at that; Madam Pomfrey didn't know that Sirius was innocent. The last thing Harry wanted was for Sirius to go back to Azkaban.

"No, she's visiting relatives in Vancouver," Remus stated. "What about Tonks? She's got some Healing experience."

"Dumbledore's got her doing something for the Order," Sirius sighed. Harry wanted to ask what an 'Order' was, but he sensed that now was not the time.

"What about Snape?" Remus suggested. There was an incredulous silence. Harry panicked; he didn't want the one teacher who hated him to appear in his bedroom and see him like this.

_"Snivellus?" _Sirius snorted. "Yeah, right. I'm not letting that man near my godson."

"Sirius, he's qualified as a Healer," Remus said patiently. Harry was surprised. "He's probably already got potions brewed that can help Harry."

"But…" Sirius trailed off. "No."

"Padfoot," Remus was clearly getting annoyed now. "We have to get someone. Who would you suggest?"

"Dumbledore," Sirius spoke immediately. "He's not a qualified Healer, no, but he's as good as. I know he doesn't want to put Harry in danger by being around him, but this is an extenuating circumstance. Besides, if he sees for himself what's going on here, maybe Harry will never have to come back."

Harry's heart skipped a beat and then started racing. His only hope was that no one would ever find out about what the Dursleys had been doing to him, but it seemed that Remus and Sirius already knew. And now, to make things worse, they were planning on clueing Dumbledore in, as well. Harry frowned, wondering what Sirius had meant when he'd said that Dumbledore didn't want to put him in danger by being around him. How would the Headmaster's presence endanger Harry? It seemed absurd.

"I'll send him a Patronus," Remus agreed, and Harry carefully opened his eyes and watched as the man rose to his feet and cast a Patronus. The silver wolf hovered in the air for a few seconds before turning and dashing out the window. Harry watched it go. As the wolf disappeared he turned back to his godfather and Remus, who were both watching him.

"Harry," Remus murmured, crouching down beside the teen once again. "Why didn't you tell us?"

It was obvious what Remus was referring to. The honest answer was that Harry hadn't wanted to admit to the wizarding world that the Boy Who Lived couldn't deal with a bunch of bullying Muggles. He wasn't about to admit that to his father's best friends, though.

"I didn't want to cause any trouble," Harry sighed instead. Well, that was true, too; it just wasn't his main reason for not speaking up.

"Harry," Sirius frowned, "You wouldn't have caused any trouble." Harry was about to answer when Albus Dumbledore appeared quite literally out of nowhere. He took one look at Harry lying on the floor and instantly the ever-present twinkle left his eyes.

*****HP*****

Of all the horrific things Remus Lupin had seen in his life, this was without a doubt the worst. Seeing Harry Potter lying on the floor covered in blood and vomit was not something one would ever get used to. Remus had known that Harry's Muggle relatives weren't exactly the most pleasant people on the planet; he'd met Petunia a few times when James and Lily were still alive, and even then she'd struck him as being stuck-up and narrow-minded. Still, he'd never expected that the Dursleys would treat their nephew like _this._

When Remus first saw Harry on the Hogwarts Express at the start of his third year, it had been painfully obvious that Harry was too pale and too thin. Remus had chalked it up to the typical teenage behaviors of spending too much time alone in his room or skipping meals in favor of playing a game of Quidditch in the yard with some of his magical friends. Never in a million years would he have thought that the reason for Harry's extreme skinniness was starvation, or that the reason for his overly pale skin was that he was locked in his bedroom against his will all summer long.

He felt immeasurably guilty for not realizing sooner what was really going on.

Watching as Dumbledore bent over Harry, Remus moved to stand behind Sirius. He kept his eyes trained on Harry's face, but the teen was studiously avoiding meeting anyone's gaze. Sirius was trying to get Harry to look at him, but Harry had inherited his stubbornness from both of his parents, and Sirius was fighting a losing battle.

Remus watched as Dumbledore cast spell after spell on his honorary godson. Harry's face relaxed each time a new spell was cast, and finally, after less than five minutes, Dumbledore stood up. Harry cautiously moved into a sitting position, helped by Sirius.

"Well?" Remus asked softly when Sirius and Harry were sufficiently distracted. Dumbledore frowned.

"He'd been beaten with something, probably a belt, but I think you already knew that," Dumbledore answered. "He's weak. He hasn't had anything to eat or drink in a long time. I've healed most of the bruises and cuts on his body, but he may still be sore for a day or two." Dumbledore pulled two large vials of potions from his robes and handed them to Remus.

"What's this?"

"The blue one is just vitamins and the like. He'll need one swallow of that one every day until it's gone," Dumbledore explained, looking down at Harry but avoiding meeting the boy's gaze. "It doesn't taste too bad, so don't worry."

"And the purple one?" Sirius asked, joining the conversation.

"Dreamless sleep potion," Dumbledore informed them. "This should be enough for about four nights' worth, but Harry can only take it if he absolutely needs it, and not for more than one night at a time."

"Thank you," Remus said, tucking the potions into his own robes as he moved to help Harry stand. The three men watched the teen for a moment until he was steady on his feet.

"Sirius, I'll floo you later. I've got some things I need to take care of, but I need to talk to you."

"Yes, sir," Sirius agreed.

"Take Harry back home to Grimmauld Place, boys," Dumbledore commanded gently. The Marauders nodded solemnly. "Don't worry; Harry, you're not going to be coming back here."

"Thank you, sir," Harry muttered, and the relief in his voice made Remus's heart melt. How could the Order have been so blind as to not even notice that their hero was suffering?

Dumbledore nodded at Sirius and Remus, turned on his heel, and vanished from sight in a flash of purple robes. Harry sagged slightly, and Remus hurried to help Sirius support him.

"Shall we apparate together, then?" Remus asked, to which Sirius nodded. They disappeared into thin air, leaving behind the prison that was Harry's home.

"Where are we?" Harry asked, curious, when the trio appeared in the street in front of Grimmauld Place.

"Number 12, Grimmauld Place," Sirius answered scathingly. "Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix."

"The Order of the Phoenix?" Harry questioned. Remus and Sirius shook their heads.

"Not now, Harry. We'll talk about it later," Remus promised. "For now, let's get you inside and get you some food." The three made their way into the house as it seemed to grow in between the two houses on either side of it. Harry, still being supported by Remus and Sirius, shrunk back slightly as he caught sight of a dozen witches and wizards staring at him. Remus and Sirius set him in a chair in the kitchen, and Molly Weasley took one look at Remus's face and began making some soup.

Hermione and Ron appeared in the room.

"Harry!" Hermione squealed. Despite everything, Harry jumped to his feet and met his friends halfway across the room. The three friends embraced in a long hug while the adults watched with amusement.

"Kingsley," Sirius sighed. "Have Ron and Hermione told you all…"

"Indeed they have," Kingsley Shackelbolt answered gravely. "Dumbledore stopped in briefly as well. What did you do with the Muggles?"

"They weren't home," Remus growled. "Lucky for them."

"We'll take care of them later," Tonks promised. Remus nodded, accepting this, and then watched as Harry played with the soup Molly had put in front of him.

"Eat," Remus ordered. He and Harry exchanged a smile before Harry began devouring his soup. As the members of the Order began to slowly get up one at a time and leave, Remus and Sirius continued to watch Harry.

"Are you tired?" Sirius asked when Harry yawned. It wasn't late at all, but given all that Harry had been through, Remus supposed it only made sense that Harry would be exhausted.

"Yeah," the dark-haired boy agreed.

"Come on," Sirius said, rising and waiting for Harry to follow. "I'll show you to your room. You can share with Ron."

Ten minutes later Sirius was back in the kitchen. Remus, Sirius, Molly, Arthur, Ron and Hermione gathered around the table.

"How bad was it?" Molly asked, concerned. Sirius shuddered, and Remus flinched.

"It was bad, Molly," Remus answered after a tense moment. "They were starving him again. They'd beaten him, too, and fairly badly. Dumbledore healed him alright, but I hate to think of what else he suffered through."

"How is it that none of us noticed?" Sirius asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. "He's my godson. I should have seen this." No one had anything to say to that, each knowing that they were all just as guilty as Sirius was.

"Well," Arthur sighed after a while, "We'll figure it out. He'll be fine. He's a strong kid."

Suddenly a terrified yell interrupted the conversation. Remus froze; there was only one person who could be yelling like that.

"Harry!" Everyone shouted at once, but Remus and Sirius were the first to move. They were out of the kitchen and running up the stairs before anyone had risen from their seats. From Harry's room, the sounds of screaming intensified. Flying into the room, wand out, Remus searched for danger. There was nothing amiss. On the bed lay Harry, writhing around in pain, covered in sweat and yelling his head off.

He was having a nightmare.

**To be continued. **


	3. Chapter 3

**I apologize for the delay in updating. I got caught up in reading a series of rather long fics by RoseDragonWitch. I realized I'd neglected my writing and decided to take a break from reading in order to do this chapter. I'm sorry for the delay! It was an accident! **

**Thanks for the reviews! **

**All rights belong to JK Rowling and Warner Bros. I'm only borrowing Harry Potter for fun. I never have and never will make profit from this. **

"Harry!" Sirius yelled. He was across the room in no time at all, carefully reaching out to his terrified godson in an attempt to shake him awake. Even in sleep, Harry flinched away from the touch. "Harry, wake up!"

And wake up he did.

With a yell, Harry sat up in bed so fast that his head almost collided with Sirius's. Before either Sirius or Remus could stop him, he had thrown himself off the bed and into the far corner of the room, wand out, ready to hex anyone who came anywhere near him. The two Marauders could only watch as Harry, breathing fast, slowly began to take in his surroundings. The teen's eyes fell upon Remus, frozen near the door, and Sirius, who was sitting on the bed with a hand reaching out towards the raven-haired boy. After a long, tense moment, Harry exhaled forcefully and lowered his wand arm. Remus relaxed his tense posture, moving to sit at the desk that was in the room. Harry sank down against the wall until he was seated on the floor.

"Sorry," they both heard him mutter. Sirius frowned.

"Harry, you've got nothing to be sorry for," he said softly. His words were meant to be comforting, but they seemed to have the opposite effect. Harry looked up at him with an incredulous expression and lifted his wand, holding it loosely between two fingers as he showed it to his godfather.

"I almost just used every single defensive curse I know in order to kill you both, and you're telling me I've got nothing to be sorry for?"

"I doubt you would've killed us," Remus reasoned. "You're far too kind for that." Harry merely gave the ex-professor a withering look before closing his eyes.

"It doesn't matter," the boy sighed self-loathingly. "I expect you probably would've stunned me before I did any real damage. Who am I but a pathetic, useless, defenseless teenage idiot…?"

He spoke so softly that Sirius had to strain to hear the words. One glance at Remus, on the other hand, told Sirius that the werewolf had heard every word quite clearly. Remus looked shocked and angry.

"Harry James Potter," Remus whispered, but Sirius was sure that Harry wasn't meant to hear the exhausted, concerned, confused words. If he did hear, he certainly didn't react. Remus and Sirius exchanged a look, wondering how best to go about fixing this situation. Sirius felt it wise to keep silent; Remus was always better with words, and anything Sirius said would more than likely make things worse.

"Harry," Remus said quietly, but the teen's head snapped up and his eyes focused on Remus. "Harry, listen to me, and listen very carefully. I don't know where you got the idea that you're pathetic, but I can tell you for certain that it's _not true."_

Sirius felt fairly sure that he knew where Harry had gotten that idea, and he vowed to himself that as soon as Harry was in a better state of mind he was going to return to Privet Drive and give the Dursleys a piece of his mind.

Harry, for his part, appeared to be trying very hard not to roll his eyes. It was obvious that he didn't believe Remus for an instant. Seeing this, Sirius scrubbed a hand over his face. It killed him to see that his godson was hurting like this. Sirius might be reckless, but he loved Harry more than anything in the world and he couldn't stand the thought that the teen hated himself so much.

"Isn't it?" Harry laughed mockingly. "I'm Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the baby who defeated Voldemort and saved the Wizarding world. I'm Harry Potter, youngest Seeker in a century, winner of the Triwizard Tournament, able to cast a patronus at age 13 and fight off the Imperius curse only a year later. I'm Harry _flipping_ Potter, and _I can't even hold off a bunch of Muggles." _

Dead silence met these words. Harry dropped his head onto his knees, which he was hugging tightly against chest. Remus and Sirius exchanged dark looks.

"Harry," Sirius couldn't stand the silence after a few moments. "You're not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts."

"That's true," Remus spoke to the top of Harry's head. "You couldn't have defended yourself even if you'd wanted to. You would only have gotten in more trouble. It's not fair, I know, but there you go."

"Oh, come on," Harry spoke bitterly, the words muffled by his legs. "Which is really more important? Going to Hogwarts, or getting expelled on account of stopping someone from trying to beat you to death?"

"Hogwarts is more important," Sirius spoke up. He wasn't sure what was making him talk, but the words wouldn't stop coming and he felt the need to speak them. "I know, because I've been in your situation." He had Harry's full attention now. "Remind me to show you some of the true horrors of this house sometime. You don't know this, Harry, but my parents hated me. They loved pureblood wizards and in their opinion anyone who associated with a wizard who wasn't a pureblood was evil. I was friends with Remus, a werewolf, Lily, a Muggle born, and James, who was a blood traitor. You can imagine that my parents were not pleased. And when I got sorted into Gryffindor, well. Not one member of my family had been in a house other than Slytherin for centuries. Let's just say that my summer holidays were hell."

Harry didn't seem to know what to say to that, Sirius noticed. He frowned, the scar on his forehead wrinkling as his eyebrows pushed together. Sirius watched, waiting for a verdict. Across the room, Remus was looking just as anxious.

"Well, I'm still pathetic and useless. Cedric died because of me."

The words were like a slap in the face. Sirius sucked in a breath and Remus flinched. They both knew that Harry's words were not true, but they also knew that convincing Harry of that fact would be next to impossible.

"You're fourteen, Harry," Sirius, frustrated, spoke without thinking about it. "No fourteen-year-old can defeat Voldemort when he's just come back to full power."

"I guess." But it was obvious from the tone that Harry didn't believe the words. Sirius desperately wanted to say something, but he had no idea what to say that wouldn't make the situation worse. He didn't know what Harry was thinking. The silence stretched on. In the end, it was Remus who saved the day.

"We love you, Harry. We all do. Sirius, me, Hermione, the Weasleys, even Dumbledore. We all love you so much. You have no idea what you mean to us. We're sorry we didn't notice that anything was going on sooner, and there's no way to make up for it, but we're going to try. What the Dursleys did to you was cruel and inhuman. Please, please try to see that they don't mean anything! They're no better than Lord Voldemort himself. Your family is _here,_ Harry, not there. _We're_ your family. _Us._ Not them. They don't matter."

Harry was looking at Remus with a shocked expression. Sirius watched his godson carefully, noticing the way that he locked gazes with Remus as if trying to read into his soul to find the truth of his words. Remus didn't break eye contact. Finally, after a long moment, Harry smiled, turning from Remus to Sirius and then staring at the floor. His smile was cautious and small, but it never faltered. Remus caught Sirius's eye and the relief that penetrated the room was palpable.

*****HP*****

Harry listened to Remus speak in stunned silence. Three words kept repeating themselves in his head. _We love you. We love you._ It was the first time anyone had said that to him. It was the first time in Harry's life that anyone had voiced their love for him. For a moment, it was almost too much. Harry almost started crying. The look in Remus's eye was impossible to doubt. Harry stared, trying to find some indication that Remus wasn't speaking the truth, but there was no lie in the words. There was no trace of dishonesty.

It wasn't enough to get rid of the self-doubt. It wasn't enough to make him feel less pathetic, or more powerful. It wasn't quite enough to convince him that everything would be okay. But it was enough, for now, to let Harry know that he was wanted. There were people that cared about him. No, it wasn't the Dursleys, which sort of hurt a bit; it would have been nice if he'd been loved in the only home he'd known before Hogwarts. Still, to know that he was wanted, after all, was a huge relief. It did something funny to his emotions. A smile grew on his face, and he couldn't even begin to try to force it back down.

"Okay," Harry said. That one word was filled with so much emotion; love, hate, fear, acceptance, happiness, sadness, realization, hope. It was filled with the unspoken knowledge that in the long term this conversation would not be enough, but that in the short term it was just exactly enough. It was filled with questions and answers. Harry never knew that one word could contain so much, but a look at Sirius told him that his godfather understood all of it.

"Do you want to try to go back to sleep, Prongslet?" he asked. Harry thought about it. In truth, he was exhausted. However, he remembered what had caused him to have the nightmare in the first place – Cedric being murdered in the graveyard by Voldemort, while the Dursleys stood there in Death Eater robes, laughing, helping Voldemort torture Harry.

"Yes… but I'm scared of what I'll dream," Harry answered honestly. He looked up at Sirius in time to see his godfather look over at Remus.

"Harry, we can give you some dreamless sleep potion," Remus suggested. Harry thought about it. The idea was tempting, but he really hated using that potion. Avoiding the dreams made it that much harder to deal with the emotions when the drinker woke up the next morning.

"No, thanks," Harry sighed. "Actually…" He hesitated, embarrassed, not wanting to admit weakness to either of his father's best friends.

"What?" Sirius prodded gently. Harry closed his eyes, not wanting to see their faces when they laughed at him.

"Will you both sit with me?" This was spoken so quietly that Harry was sure neither man would hear it. Remus clearly did, however, because Harry heard footsteps approaching. A hand gently pulled Harry to his feet.

"Of course," the ex-professor answered softly, and Harry opened his eyes. Remus wasn't laughing; in fact, there was empathy in his eyes. "We'll stay with you all night if you want us to." Harry fell onto the bed, already almost asleep. He felt someone pull the covers up over him. He tried to thank them, but he wasn't sure if the words actually came out.

"Someone better hide my wand. You know, just in case," he managed to mutter after a moment, and the resulting snorts of laughter from both Remus and Sirius caused the last of the tension to drain from his body. He was asleep before he heard a reply.

*****HP******

Remus watched Harry sleep. He looked so young, so peaceful in this state. It was like seeing a carbon-copy of James. The worried set of Harry's eyebrows was relaxed, and the hyper-vigilant eyes were resting behind closed lids.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Sirius asked after a few moments. Remus glanced over at his friend.

"It may take a while, but he'll be fine."

"I can't believe we didn't notice, Moony," Sirius pinched the bridge of his nose. "How did we not notice?"

"I don't know." Remus was wondering the same thing. How had the entire Order of the Phoenix neglected to notice that Harry was being abused in his own house? Each member of the Order had stood guard outside of Privet Drive at least once over the summer, and Sirius and Remus knew Harry well enough that they should have noticed immediately. How had they been so blind to what was really going on?

"I suppose we see what we want to see," Sirius mused, as if he'd read Remus's mind.

"What do you mean?" Remus asked, turning his attention back to Harry but listening to his best friend.

"Well, what is sight, really? It's a picture of what's going on around you, right? But if I close my eyes, I can still visualize exactly what I want to visualize. Even if I know the sky is blue, I can still shut my eyes and pretend that it's red instead." Sirius paused for a moment as Remus pondered this. "What if we did notice what was going on with Harry, on some level at least, but we didn't want to see it? What if we made the sky red when it's really been blue all along?"

"Even when the facts are right in front of us, we ignored the story they were telling," Remus translated. "We saw what we wanted to see because dealing with the truth was too painful."

Sirius didn't answer, and Remus took his silence as an affirmative. The thought wasn't a comforting one. Remus let his mind wander back to the first time he'd seen Harry in twelve years; he'd awoken on the Hogwarts Express to find that he was sharing a compartment with Harry Potter and his two best friends. Now that he truly thought about it, there had been signs, even then, that Harry wasn't being raised in ideal conditions. He'd noticed how skinny the boy was, but he'd ignored it. It was certainly suspicious that Harry was the only third year who wasn't going into Hogsmeade. Remus felt like kicking himself; why had he not noticed it before?

"We've got to find a way to fix this," Sirius muttered. Remus looked over at him.

"We will, Sirius."

"How, Remus? How do we fix this?"

Remus sighed. "With patience, time, and a lot of love."

The two fell silent again, both watching Harry's face as he slept.

**To be continued. **

**Again, I'm really sorry for waiting almost a week. Oops. School is starting again in a few days, so I'll try to get the next chapter up before classes start. **

**Thanks for all of the reviews, favs, follows, and etc. It really means a lot. Please feel free to leave a review, and thanks again! **

**Oh… if you don't like this story, that's perfectly fine; I respect that. But… it isn't necessary to be disrespectful about it. It's not really fair to leave a review that you yourself wouldn't appreciate seeing on one of your own stories. If you have constructive criticism, that's fine. I like that. I encourage that. It helps me improve. On the other hand, leaving a nasty review just for the sake of leaving a nasty review is unnecessary. **


	4. Chapter 4

** I meant to update sooner. My mistake. I'll make an effort to update more frequently in the future, but school starts tomorrow and it may only end up being possible to update on weekends. I'll have to see how the homework load looks. **

** I do not own the Harry Potter books and I don't own the movies, either. JK Rowling and Warner Bros are the ones who do. I don't make any sort of profit from this writing. **

When Harry awoke the following morning, he wasn't immediately sure where he was. Looking around, he saw that he was lying on a large bed in the biggest bedroom he'd ever been in – it was certainly bigger than Dudley's second bedroom, at any rate. Another identical bed was placed against one of the room's four long, gray walls. A tuft of bright orange-red hair was visible above the blankets, and Harry grinned when he realized that it was Ron. He relaxed; if Ron felt safe enough to sleep in this room, then there was most likely not any danger present here.

A soft snort from nearby drew his attention, and looking to his right he saw a mop of black hair resting on the bed next to him. It took a moment, but recognition came in a flash: it was Sirius Black, convicted murderer, escapee from the heavily guarded Wizard prison Azkaban, and, coincidentally, Harry's godfather. Harry's smile widened as he suddenly remembered what had happened. He'd been liberated from the Dursleys. Dumbledore had promised him that he'd never have to go back there. Even better, Sirius and Remus had told him that they loved him; that they were his family. It was the first time in his life that he'd ever heard such a thing, and the memory made him laugh out loud in happiness.

The bedroom door opened at that moment. A head poked around the doorframe, and Harry recognized his old Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"Professor Lupin!" he greeted, using the man's formal title out of old habit. The werewolf smiled and shook his head.

"It's _Remus,_ Harry. Remus."

"Sorry," Harry grinned. He usually didn't have a problem calling the man by his given name, but for some reason it seemed just as easy to call him 'Professor'.

"How are you feeling this morning, Harry?"

"Much better, thanks," Harry answered. Then, hesitantly, "Thanks for last night." Remus smiled widely, and his face instantly appeared a dozen years younger.

"Oh, you're more than welcome. I meant every word of it, you know."

Roused by the sounds of voices, Sirius sat up, brushing his wild hair out of his eyes and scrubbing a hand over his face. He looked from Harry to Remus with a soft smile.

"Dumbledore wants to talk to you in your office," Remus told him. Harry listened with interest as Sirius cocked his head to the side.

"Finally got around to Flooing me, did he?" he asked. "Alright. I'll go and see what he wants. Harry, I'll be back in a little while." With that, Harry's godfather disappeared out the door. Remus moved out of his way before once again sticking his head around the doorframe. He raised one eyebrow in question. Harry, who had always been good at interpreting body language, leapt to his feet, dutifully following Remus into the hallway.

"So, what's Dumbledore want with Sirius?" Harry asked, feeling slightly uneasy. If Sirius was in trouble, Harry was sure that it would somehow be because of him.

"Oh, I expect we'll be finding out soon enough," Remus answered vaguely, though he smiled a secret little smile that clearly told Harry that he knew more than he was letting on. Before Harry could question him further, Remus changed the subject. "Harry… I'm sorry to say that when we got your owl we acted rather abruptly. Naturally, the Order wanted to know why we disobeyed Dumbledore's direct orders and went to Privet Drive to get you."

Harry felt his blood run cold. "No," he gasped, dread filling him from head to toe. "No. You didn't tell them."

Remus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, cub. We didn't have a choice. Dumbledore tried to keep the explanation as vague as possible, but many of the Order are aurors and almost all of us are very good at reading between the lines. It wasn't possible to keep it a secret."

Harry's face burned with shame. Remus put a comforting arm around his shoulders. Harry frowned. The nature of his life at the Dursleys had been a secret that he'd kept, and kept well, for almost fifteen years now. It was horrifying to know that now everyone knew about it.

"Who knows?" he asked. He'd heard the conversation in the kitchen the day before, of course, when Mrs. Weasley had made his soup. He knew that at the top of the list, other than Remus and Sirius, would be all of the Weasleys, Hermione, and the two people who were called Kingsley and Tonks. He'd never met either of the last two before, and it was embarrassing that complete strangers were aware of the abuse he'd suffered.

"Aside from Sirius, Dumbledore, and myself," Remus listed, "There's Hermione and the Weasleys, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Tonks, Mad-Eye, Professor McGonogall, Dedalus Diggle, and…"

Well, that wasn't so bad, Harry thought. Aside from Dedalus Diggle, whom Harry wasn't sure he trusted, none of the people Remus named seemed that bad. Sure, Kingsley and Tonks were strangers, but at least they'd seemed nice enough when Harry had briefly caught sight of them in the kitchen the day before.

"Wait a moment," Harry said slowly as he comprehended the hesitant tone of Remus's voice. "And? And who?"

"Harry," Remus cleared his throat. "You've got to understand that this wasn't my idea. Sirius and I tried to avoid… but Dumbledore… and he's quite clever anyway; would've figured it out on his own just based on the circumstances…"

"Remus," Harry found himself using a warning tone of voice without meaning to. "Who?"

"Professor Snape," Remus blurted, as if speaking fast would help Harry feel better about the situation. It didn't.

"Professor Snape," Harry repeated, but no sound came out. He covered his face with his hands. This was beyond humiliating.

Harry and Remus had walked along the hall as they'd talked. They'd gone down two flights of stairs and were now reaching the first floor landing. Harry recognized the door to the kitchen. He made to enter it, but Remus held him back.

"Harry, I have to warn you about Snape…" but the warning was rendered unnecessary when, at that moment, a low, silky voice from behind them cut into the end of Remus's sentence.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter."

"…he's here right now," Remus finished lamely, squeezing Harry's shoulder in a show of support. Slowly Harry turned on the spot to face his Potions teacher. He expected Snape to be sneering at him with the usual hate-filled gaze. He expected Snape to be standing upright in such a way as to display superiority. He expected Snape's eyes to bore into his own in a way that told Harry very clearly what Snape thought of him. What he saw when he took in Snape's face, however, was even worse than a thousand sneering glares.

Snape was watching Harry with an expression that looked very similar to pity.

****HP******

Sirius wanted to stay with his godson until he was sure that the boy was going to be as fine emotionally as he was physically, but there was no keeping Albus Dumbledore waiting. Entering his office and automatically straightening his posture, Sirius spotted the old man's head sitting in the middle of an emerald green fire in the grate. He strode over to the fireplace, knelt down, and not-so-patiently waited for Dumbledore to get to the point.

The Hogwarts Headmaster gave Sirius an appraising look over the tops of his half-moon spectacles, and Sirius had to fight the urge to fidget nervously. Surely Dumbledore wouldn't be angry at him for saving Harry from more torture at his relatives' hands?

"You've grown up, Sirius," Dumbledore said as a conversation-starter. Sirius paused, unsure of where this was coming from. Of course he'd grown up; he was well into his thirties, after all. Did Dumbledore really expect him to be a teenager for his whole life? Sirius frowned, letting the silence stretch until it became apparent that Dumbledore was going to wait him out.

"Azkaban will tend to do that to you," he answered, and though he'd intended the words to be light and joking, he was forced to swallow uncomfortably at the reminder of the twelve wasted years of his life. He'd been left alone to do a lot of thinking, and it was true that Azkaban had been the place where Sirius had finally been forced to let go of childhood. There was no room for childish thoughts or ambitions in a place like that. In order to survive, let alone stay sane, only the most serious, mature thoughts would do.

Dumbledore didn't reply immediately, choosing instead to survey Sirius once again over his glasses. When the man finally did speak, his words were slow and carefully chosen.

"Sirius, you've always been reckless," he said, and Sirius winced at the hard truth to those words. Dumbledore wasn't one for holding back, and Sirius found himself feeling almost guilty. "You act without thinking and throw caution to the winds." There was a pause. "Do you know why I wanted to talk to you today?"

Sirius had to think about that one. In truth, he had no idea why Dumbledore wanted to talk to him. He had assumed that it had to do with Harry, but so far the conversation didn't seem to be headed in that direction. Thinking it best not to lie to the Headmaster, Sirius shrugged.

"No, sir," he answered, knowing that Dumbledore would want a verbal response. The silver-haired man smiled, his eyes twinkling suddenly.

"You're a good person, Sirius. I'll be honest with you. When James and Lily appointed you as Harry's godfather, I had my doubts." Sirius bristled at that, but Dumbledore silenced him with a look. "I thought you were too reckless; that you would pass on some of your more… ah… _mischievous _characteristics to the boy. Now that I've had time to observe, however, I see that I was wrong, and that I owe you an apology."

So surprising was this admission that Sirius couldn't think of a single thing to say.

"I was wrong in sending Harry back to the Dursleys year after year," Dumbledore went on softly, and although he sounded ashamed, he kept his eyes on Sirius the whole time. "I honestly thought I was protecting him by keeping him there, but now I wonder what I was thinking. Sirius, if I had let you take Harry that night, you never would have gone after Peter; you would have had your hands full with your godson. I justified it by saying that the blood wards on Privet Drive would keep Voldemort away, but in truth, your home here at Grimmauld Place is just as well protected. The Fidelius Charm alone is enough to keep Voldemort out as long as the Secret-Keeper doesn't betray its location, and that's even without the place being Unplottable. Your family put so many charms on this place to hide it that I don't really know what I was thinking in saying that Harry would be more protected at his aunt's house."

"I only hope we didn't realize it too late," Sirius sighed. The words were rather more harsh than he'd intended, but he couldn't help it. Despite Dumbledore's apology, his words had opened some old wounds that he'd thought had healed over. In response to Sirius's words, Dumbledore bowed his head for a moment. Sirius flinched.

"I share that hope," he sighed. "Now that Voldemort's back Harry will need to rely on us more than ever, and I can only hope that he will be able to do so. It's going to be hard enough as it is. I can't come into contact with him for his own sake; I don't want Voldemort to be able to get into his head. What with the Daily Prophet's attacks on Harry, it's not going to be an easy school year."

"No," Sirius frowned. He hadn't thought about how Harry was going to deal with the Wizarding world's rejection of him.

"Does he know you've been cleared?" Dumbledore asked. Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"No, I was waiting to tell him," he answered. "He's not going to be pleased when he finds out that a good portion of the Order knows what happened at Privet Drive, and I was going to wait until that storm blows over before I drop another surprise on him."

"Sensible idea," Dumbledore agreed. "Still, you might want to tell him, Sirius, before someone else does. Knowing that the Ministry is no longer after you might lift a huge weight off his shoulders."

Sirius pondered this for a moment in silence before he nodded.

"I've got something here for you," Dumbledore said after a while. Sirius looked up at him in surprise. "Hold on just one moment, and I'll pass it through to you."

The old man's head was pulled from the fireplace and a hand was thrust through. It took a moment for Sirius to notice the folded parchment that was clasped in Dumbledore's hand, but then he leaned forward and took it into his own grasp. Dumbledore's hand was withdrawn and seconds later his head reappeared. Sirius hardly noticed; his attention was riveted on the parchment that he'd just unfolded.

"These are adoption papers," he said in wonder. He looked down to the signature on the bottom of the page. "And the Dursleys have already signed them! Dumbledore, what is this?"

"All they need is your signature, Sirius, and Harry will legally be under your permanent care."

"But… why now?"

"It's time," was all Dumbledore replied, but it was enough. Sirius reached onto his desk for a quill, loaded it with ink, and scrawled a hasty signature. Folding the parchment once again, he placed it between Dumbledore's teeth and watched as the man nodded, smiled slightly, and disappeared. The emerald flames vanished. Sirius was left sitting on the floor, a grin building on his face as he realized that Harry was going to be living with him from now on. It may have been fourteen years later than planned, but here he was, the legal guardian of James Potter's son.

*****HP******

Harry desperately wanted to disappear into thin air; at least then he wouldn't be stuck in the kitchen with the members of the mysterious Order of the Phoenix who had apparently stayed behind for breakfast. Oh, how he wished he knew how to Apparate. If he'd thought Snape's pitying gaze had been bad, it was nothing compared to the looks that Hermione, Ginny, and Ron were throwing his way. Snape hadn't said much, but the look in his eyes had made Harry feel incredibly ashamed of himself. Usually Snape would be the first to attack Harry, but today he was being ridiculously polite and even kind. In fact, everyone seemed to be treating Harry like glass. Only the twins, Fred and George, were displaying any sort of normalcy. Harry felt a rush of gratitude towards the trouble makers as they teased him and Ginny for staring at each other for just a second too long. He noticed the warning glare that Mrs. Weasley shot at her sons, and immediately wished she wouldn't do that. The last thing he wanted was to draw attention to the fact that anything bad had happened.

After twenty minutes of catching people staring at him, Harry rose to his feet with a shake of his head. Ron and Hermione instantly followed. Harry caught the look on his godfather's face and he saw the half-formed, worried protest on Mrs. Weasley's lips. Before anyone could say a word he'd marched from the room, his best friends on his heels. The three made their way silently to the bedroom that Harry and Ron were sharing.

"Harry, what's up?" Ron asked immediately. Tactless as he was, Ron was always very good at reading Harry.

"I'm sick of this," Harry answered, immediately beginning to pace the room in an attempt to stay calm. "Everyone's acting like I'm going to break at any second. Sirius and the others hardly want me to leave the room. You all keep staring at me."

Hermione and Ron exchanged a look.

"Er… Harry," Hermione started apologetically. "None of us mean anything by it. We're just worried about you."

"That's the problem!" Harry spat, exasperated. Hermione flinched, causing Harry to feel a slight twinge of guilt. He made a mental note to get a better control over his temper. As he paced the room, he could have sworn that the empty picture frame on the wall over his bed was snickering at him.

"Come on, mate," Ron said. "None of us knew what was going on at the Dursleys, and now that we've found out about it, it's kind of hard to ignore."

Far from improving Harry's mood, Ron's words only caused Harry to have to fight back a scowl. It wasn't Ron's fault that everyone was thinking like that, he knew, but it was hard to stay calm when even your best friends were looking at you like you were a different person.

"You don't understand," Harry said, frustrated. He threw himself down onto his bed, sitting on the edge angrily.

"Explain it to us," Hermione prodded. Harry turned his gaze onto her.

"This has been going on for years. _Years,_ Hermione," he frowned. "No one's made a big deal of it before. Yeah, I mean, you didn't _know_ about it before, but why should you treat me any differently now just because you've found out one of my biggest secrets? This has been happening since long before you guys met me. I'm still the same person. So why is everyone treating me like I'm about to break?"

Ron and Hermione exchanged another thoughtful look, frowning at each other.

"You're right, Harry," Hermione finally spoke. "I suppose we just feel guilty, is all."

Now Harry was confused.

"Guilty?"

"Well, yeah," Ron shrugged, and Harry found himself feeling grateful for his friend's carefree attitude. "You've been our best friend for four years now and neither of us have noticed that anything was wrong. You'd feel guilty, too, wouldn't you, if it was one of us that was in your place?"

Harry thought about that for a moment before he admitted with a sigh that Ron was right. If Harry had found out that Hermione, or Ron, or even Neville Longbottom was being abused, he'd feel incredibly guilty for not noticing.

"Okay, I can see your point," he conceded. "But still, that doesn't mean you have to treat me like glass. Sirius won't leave my side, Remus keeps looking at me, and even Snape pities me."

"Harry, I know it's hard, but they'll get over it," Ron said. "I expect they're feeling guilty, too. You should've seen McGonogall when she found out last night. It was after you went to bed. She went on and on for almost an hour about how she should've seen the signs. Lit into us pretty good, too, because we didn't notice."

"That's not fair!" Harry exclaimed, not liking the fact that his friends had been blamed for his own secrecy.

"No, but Harry, it's not really fair of you to blame us for worrying, is it? I know you want us to carry on like nothing's changed, and we will, but we need to adjust to this. Let me come to terms with the fact that one of my best friends in the whole world has been beaten nearly to death on a regular basis by the people who are supposed to be his family," Hermione said. Harry cringed at her words, but they opened up a new perspective from him. Suddenly the pitying, worried looks he'd been getting made more sense. They weren't going to be any fun to live with, but at least he now understood the reason he was getting them.

Hesitantly, Harry nodded. Sensing that the danger of a Harry-esque explosion was past, Ron reclined on his bed and Hermione settled into the desk chair that Remus had occupied the previous night.

"Harry, why didn't you tell us?" Ron's hesitant voice called. Harry frowned down at the bedspread, thinking through his response.

"I don't know," he finally lied. Hermione frowned and shook her head, and Harry took that to mean that she knew he wasn't telling the truth. He sighed loudly. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to think I was pathetic," he answered honestly.

"Excuse me?" Ron asked. Harry sighed again.

"I'm supposed to be a big, strong, famous wizard," he laughed in a self-deprecating way. "I supposedly defeated Voldemort. How come I can't deal with a few Muggles?"

The picture on the wall snickered again, and Harry, suddenly annoyed, yanked his wand out of his pocket and prepared to light the canvas on fire. He didn't get a chance, however, because Hermione had her wand out, too.

"Muffliato!" she cried, and Harry and Ron turned to her. "Silencing charm," she explained.

"Harry," Ron said, getting back on topic. "You're not pathetic, mate. We could never think that. You've done so much in the past few years alone. It doesn't matter what a few Muggles think."

"Thanks, Ron," Harry smiled gratefully. The trio sat in comfortable silence, not needing to talk anymore to know that they'd reached an understanding. Harry knew that he'd still be the subject of awkward questions and uncomfortable stares, but he also knew that Ron and Hermione didn't think any less of him, and that was enough. As long as his best friends were on his side, Harry felt that everything would turn out okay.

******HP******

Sirius, Molly, and Remus sat together in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, a silencing charm on the door as they talked. Each listened hard for any sound from the children who were scattered about the house, but the teens were being unusually quiet. Sirius had the feeling that they were intentionally trying to get out of the way of the adults.

"When are you planning on telling Harry that you're free, and that you're adopting him?" Molly asked softly. She and Sirius weren't the best of friends, and they probably never would be. It was a known fact that Molly considered Sirius to be an unfit guardian for Harry. However, even Mrs. Weasley couldn't find a reason not to be happy for Sirius and Harry. She trusted Dumbledore's judgment better than almost anyone else's, and if Dumbledore thought that Harry would be fine with Sirius, then she was going to accept the situation.

"I'm not sure," Sirius replied softly as he took a sip of his butterbeer. "I want to tell him right now, but I'm not sure he's ready to hear it yet."

"No," Remus agreed. "Wait until things have calmed down. He was very upset when he found out that the Order knows about the abuse he suffered, and I have to admit that we haven't been making it easy for him. He knows we're worried, and I think it bothers him."

"Of course we're worried!" Molly turned her wrath to Remus. "How could we not be?"

"Molly," Remus appeased, holding his hands up in surrender. "I don't mean to say that we're wrong to be worried. I just mean that it's making Harry uncomfortable."

"How so?" Sirius asked. Remus frowned.

"He's lived his whole life with no one knowing what's been going on, and now all of a sudden more than a dozen people know the truth. It can't be easy. He keeps catching us looking at him, and I know Snape threw him for a loop this morning. He wasn't expecting Snape's reaction at all."

"So you're saying we should just treat him like we always have been?" Molly asked. Remus nodded. "How can we do that, though? Remus, he's been through so much! They've been starving him; they've been beating him! No one should have to live through that."

"That's exactly why he needs to be treated like normal," Remus explained gently but firmly. "If we go treating him differently than usual just because we know now what his uncle's been doing to him, that's only going to cause him to feel more anxious and uncomfortable."

"I suppose you're right," Molly frowned. Sirius took another sip of his butterbeer.

"Maybe I should go ahead and tell him," he mused. The three adults shared a look. "I mean, if I wait, he'll think I was just keeping it from him, and I know he won't appreciate that."

Remus wasn't sure how he felt about it, so he turned to Molly. The woman's instincts were uncanny when children were involved. Sirius watched the red-head, too, as she thought about what he'd said. There was a long pause.

"Tell him," Molly agreed. "But wait until tonight, after everyone's stopped barging in and out of the house for the day. Wait until the others are in bed. It's not something that they should overhear. Harry needs to tell them for himself."

"Okay," Sirius agreed. Remus leaned back in his seat, anticipating Harry's response when he found out that his godfather had been cleared of all charges and had adopted him.

**To be continued. **

**Thanks for the reviews, favs, follows. I'll try to update soon, but I really don't expect to be able to put up another chapter until Sunday at least. I hope everyone is having a good week so far. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry about the late update. I knew this was going to happen. From now on my updates are probably going to have to be a bit more infrequent. Sorry. **

**Thanks for the reviews, favorites, and follows! Constructive criticism is welcome. **

**I don't own Harry Potter; that would be JK Rowling, and it's really a good thing, because if I'd been the one writing it, I wouldn't have done nearly as good of a job. **

Harry could hardly recall a longer, more uncomfortable day. Ron and Hermione had quit treating him like a stranger, and Ginny had quickly caught on as well, but none of the adults in the house seemed to understand Harry's desire to be treated just like they would've treated him a week ago.

It didn't help matters that Order members kept coming in and out of the old house. Ron and Hermione had taken the time to explain what they knew about the Order of the Phoenix; it was a secret society formed by Dumbledore during the first Wizarding war for the purpose of fighting Voldemort and his followers. The members of the Order of the Phoenix ranged from intimidating Aurors like Kingsley Shacklebolt and Alastor Moody to total cowards such as Mundungus Fletcher.

For a secret society, Harry thought wryly, they weren't very good at keeping secrets.

The news of Harry's unfortunate childhood seemed to have spread like wildfire; each successive member of the Order who walked in the door seemed to be sending apologetic, worried, or pitying glances in Harry's direction. It was annoying, but Harry kept his head high.

The children weren't allowed in the room during Order meetings, but that didn't stop Fred and George from pulling out what Harry later found out were called Extendable Ears. The Ears didn't work through the Silencing Charm on the kitchen door, however, Hermione's cat Crookshanks had found a very convenient Pixie burrow in the back wall of an upstairs room. The hole that the Pixies lived in was exactly the size of one of the twins' Extendable Ears, and seemed to form a tunnel all the way down to the kitchen on the floor below. There were no Pixies currently inhabiting the burrow, so the twins were able to snake an Extendable Ear down to the kitchen. The voices were muffled and distorted because of the wall, but the teenagers were able to hear what the Order was talking about.

"…should tell Potter about it soon," a drawling, sneering voice suggested slowly.

"Snape," Hermione muttered, and Harry nodded in agreement.

"He's too young," Mrs. Weasley's was now arguing. "He's just a child. He's not even fifteen yet. If we tell him now, it will just be one more weight on his shoulders…"

"Potter is clever," Snape said forcibly. It sounded to Harry like the Potions Master was choking with the effort of forcing out anything close to a compliment regarding Harry. "He will find out on his own, and not in the way that we would desire. I believe it would be prudent to tell him here, in safety, where he cannot do anything rash."

"I agree with Snivellus," Sirius spoke up. Harry and Fred exchanged smirks at the nickname.

"He's not James, Sirius!" Molly again, sounding exasperated.

"If I may," Mr. Weasley cut in quietly. Molly's voice instantly faded into nothing, and by the dead silence that managed to sound tense even through the Extendable Ears, Harry could guess that it was rare for Mr. Weasley to challenge his wife in public like this. "I also agree with Severus. Harry's got to know. It's bad enough as it is that he's getting the silent treatment here, at the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix of all places. He's the one who saw You-Know-Who return, Molly; he's done more already in fighting Voldemort than any of us have ever done. Don't you think he has a right to know the truth?"

There was indistinct murmuring at this, as if a dozen side conversations had broken out at once. Harry strained his ears to hear what they were saying, but he could do nothing more than pick out a few scattered, individual words every now and then.

"I say we tell him," Remus spoke up over the muttering, and instantly silence fell again. "Not everything, Molly; I agree that he's too young to know the more gruesome details just yet. But even you have to admit that he's got to find out sooner or later. Isn't it better that we tell him here, than take the risk of him finding out on his own at Hogwarts? I taught him in his third year, remember. He was always highly intelligent and very quick on the uptake. He's like Dumbledore in that he doesn't miss a trick. If there's any way for Harry to find out, he'll do it. No; it's better that we tell him here."

"It's going to be such a load for him to bear," Mrs. Weasley whined, but Harry saw Fred and George exchanged loaded looks and he knew that she was giving in. He found himself wondering what exactly the Order was trying so hard to keep in the dark about.

"Potter should also start taking Occlumency," Snape stated, and Harry shifted nervously at the man's tone of voice. Snape sounded almost happy; that was never a good sign.

"For what reason?" Sirius spoke up. "I don't want you or anyone fishing around in my godson's head."

"I agree," Molly said firmly. "It's not necessary."

"If you two want the Dark Lord to take over Potter's mind bit by bit, painfully and completely, until there's nothing left of the Potter you know, then, by all means, continue to disagree with me," Snape sneered. Harry shivered. "If, however, you want to prevent this from happening, it would be prudent to reconsider your position."

"It would be better to have someone trustworthy snooping in Harry's head than to allow Voldemort to get there first," a new voice agreed thoughtfully. Harry paused, trying to put a name to the owner of the voice.

"Tonks?" Ron asked. Hermione, however, shook her head.

"No; Tonks has a much more musical voice. It's not someone I've ever met before."

Harry frowned as the voice spoke again.

"That way," the stranger reasoned, "We can be sure that none of Harry's thoughts is used against us. Hopefully we'll be able to help him block out You-Know-Who before he also finds out what's going on in the boy's mind."

Suddenly, realization hit Harry.

"I know who that is! That's someone who lives on my street. Mrs. Figg. But what's she doing here?"

No one knew the answer to that, and the Order meeting came to a close moments later, so Harry and the others were left in the dark. As he made his way down to the kitchen for dinner, Harry frowned to himself. Snape had said something about Occlumency, whatever that was. Harry had never heard of such a thing before, but he gathered that it had something to do with reading minds. Harry wasn't too sure how happy he was about the idea of someone seeing his private thoughts; would Sirius and Remus really allow this to happen? Surely they'd keep him safe from an intrusion like that… wouldn't they? They wouldn't let Snape violate him like that… right?

Mrs. Weasley piled his plate high with steak, potatoes, beans, and corn, but Harry had lost his appetite. He wasn't able to force down more than a few bites of his food. Sirius tried to coax him into conversation, but Harry responded only with "yes" and "no" until Sirius gave up and went back to eating his steak. Mrs. Weasley frowned at him over her own plate, reaching across the table to feel his forehead. He pulled away slightly but didn't really try to stop her, and after a few seconds she withdrew her hand, frowning in bewilderment. Harry didn't care. He was too busy thinking about what he'd heard, wondering what they were keeping from him, and worrying that his thoughts would be made public and he'd have no way to stop it.

******HP*******

After dinner, Harry made his way up to the bedroom that he shared with Ron. He didn't bother to stop and talk to anyone. Fred, George, and Ginny were engaged in a game of Exploding Snap; he doubted they'd even noticed that he was gone. Ron and Hermione were bickering over a chess board, where Ron was mercilessly crushing Hermione. Mad-Eye Moody, who had disappeared before dinner but returned in time for dessert, was the only one who noticed Harry as he stood up from the table and escaped from the kitchen. Harry felt the man's strange magical eye on him all the way up the stairs.

Harry didn't really care. He just wanted to be alone, and as long as no one bothered him, Moody could watch him all he wanted. He flopped onto his bed, checking to see that the blank picture frame was still Silenced. That was no good, however; feeling the picture's invisible eyes on him, he shivered. Snatching a blanket from his bed, Harry stood up and walked to the picture frame. With one hand he held the corner of the blanket to a top corner of the frame, and with the other he gave the blanket a tap with his wand. The blanket instantly adhered to the frame. It was temporary, Harry knew, but it was good enough to give him privacy. He repeated this process with the other top corner of the picture. Satisfied that he was now as alone as possible with Mad-Eye Moody in the house, Harry flopped onto his bed and sat against the pillows in silence, attempting to clear his mind of all thoughts.

He was almost asleep when there was a knock at the door. Thinking it was Ron wanting to come to bed, Harry called for the person to come in. When the door opened, however, it wasn't Ron standing in the hall, but Remus. Harry's heart sank. He really didn't want to deal with anyone right now.

"Harry, I was wondering if we could have a talk," the werewolf said. He sounded like he was in a good mood, Harry noted. "May I come in?"

Not moving from his pillows, Harry grunted in the affirmative. Remus paused before entering the room, and Harry recognized from the many anti-Dementor lessons the worried sweep of eyes up and down his body.

"I'm fine," he muttered, before Remus could ask. He wanted to add, _I'm just a little bit put out that you all are keeping things from me and talking about me behind my back,_ but he didn't want to get the twins in trouble. After all, it was _their_ Extendable Ears that had been used in the process of spying on the Order.

Remus closed the door behind him, and Harry flinched. He knew Remus wasn't going to hurt him, but past experience had taught him never to remain in a closed-off room alone with an adult. Remus noticed his reaction and froze, apparently trying to decide what to do next. Not wanting to see the emotions battling for dominance on his ex-Professor's face, Harry rolled onto his side so that he was facing away from the werewolf.

"Harry, are you sure you're alright?" Remus asked after a moment. His voice was much closer than Harry had expected, but he stopped himself from flinching.

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "I'm fine, Remus. I'm just thinking about some things."

"Ah," Remus said softly. "Such as the Order meeting you overheard earlier?" The words were spoken casually, with more amusement than disapproval, but Harry felt his blood run cold. He hurriedly sat up, turning to face Remus.

"How did you…?"

"Mad-Eye," Remus answered with a wry smile. "That eye of his can see through walls and ceilings, you know. He saw you kids gathered on the floor above us and thought it was strange. All he had to do was look through the wall to see one of the twins' clever inventions." Harry grimaced. Remus read his expression and shook his head. "Don't worry; no one else knows. Just Mad-Eye and myself. You're not in trouble."

"I wasn't worried about me," Harry said, mostly truthfully.

"We're not going to tell Molly," Remus assured him gently. Harry relaxed. "I'm sure you have questions, though."

Harry frowned as he read Remus's face. Would it be safe to ask Remus some of the more pressing questions on his mind?

"You can ask me anything, Harry," Remus told him. Harry swallowed and gathered his courage.

"You're not going to let Snape mess around in my head, are you?" he asked, and winced when he heard how terrified and small his voice sounded. Remus's eyes widened. The expression on his face was one of complete shock and horror. Harry wasn't sure how to interpret it, so he stared at the blanket covering the picture frame.

"Harry…" Remus didn't seem to know what to say. Harry frowned.

"Please," he begged. "Don't… don't let Snape get in my head. Remus, please." Begging wasn't in Harry's nature, and he was surprised to hear the words come spilling from his mouth. The effect they had on Lupin, however, was reassuring. The werewolf's surprised expression turned to one of steely resolve.

"_As long as_ things remain as they are and Voldemort doesn't try to get in your head, then Harry, I promise you, Snape will _not_ be helping you to learn Occlumency."

There could be no doubting these words, and Harry relaxed.

"Is there anything else you want to know, cub?" Remus prodded gently. Harry considered.

"What did Mrs. Weasley mean, 'I'm too young to know'? Too young to know what? Mr. Weasley said I'll probably find out at Hogwarts. Find out _what?_"

Remus frowned down at the floor, and Harry could see an internal struggle. He watched emotions flicker across the older mans' face.

"I'm not sure now is the right time for that," Remus said. Harry felt a rush of disappointment. Remus must have caught this, because he shook his head. "Harry, I'm not telling you that I'm not going to tell you. It's just that now is not the right time." Harry thought about this for a moment before nodding in acceptance.

"One more thing," he started, then paused. Remus waited patiently. "What was Mrs. Figg doing here?"

Remus's eyes slipped closed. "Ah," he groaned. "So you _did _recognize her. Dumbledore didn't want you to know because he didn't want the Dursleys to accidentally find out, but… I guess it doesn't matter now… Mrs. Figg is a Squib."

Harry stared.

"No," he said. There was no way that a person with connections to the magical world had been living a few doors down for his whole life without him knowing about it.

"Yes," Remus sighed. "Dumbledore wanted to make sure you were safe at the Dursleys. He and Mrs. Figg were in constant contact. Unfortunately, that plan backfired…"

"Why did she never tell me?" Harry was bewildered. Remus hurried to explain.

"She was under orders from Dumbledore. Dumbledore didn't want you to get too close to Mrs. Figg. He figured that your aunt and uncle would become suspicious if you suddenly _wanted_ to go over to Mrs. Figg's house. He had hoped that, by keeping you out of the loop, you would be safer in the long run."

Harry didn't know what to say to that, so he settled for making an indistinct sound in the back of his throat. He was spared from answering by a knock on the door. Remus started, and Harry looked up quickly. The door cracked open and Sirius peeked in.

"I'll leave you to talk," Remus stood suddenly. Harry was about to protest; why should Remus have to leave? But he suddenly caught the grin on Remus's face and realized that whatever Sirius had to say, he wanted to say alone.

"Thanks, Remus," Sirius answered, and Remus left. Harry turned to his godfather expectantly.

****HP****

Sirius sat on a chair near Harry's bed. A huge grin was stretching across his face; he couldn't wait to see Harry's reaction to the news that he was a free man. Harry, for his part, was watching Sirius with curious excitement, obviously catching on to the adrenaline flooding Sirius's veins.

"Harry, I've got something to tell you," Sirius said, and his heart fell ever so slightly when he noticed that Harry's smile faltered slightly. It didn't take a genius to know that Harry was insecure about his place in Sirius's family, and Sirius found himself once again regretting ever chasing after Peter Pettigrew. Harry, however, seeing that Sirius was still excited, smiled widely once again.

The silence stretched on as Sirius tried to find the words to explain his freedom, but he couldn't do it. Shaking his head ruefully, Sirius pulled the adoption papers from inside his robes. Dumbledore had given him back a copy of the papers during the Order meeting. Everything was now official with the Ministry of Magic and the Muggle authorities as well; Sirius was now Harry's legal guardian, and he couldn't contain his happiness.

"Maybe I'd better just show you," Sirius explained as he handed over the folded parchment to his godson. Harry held his gaze for a moment, clearly trying to figure out what this was about, but Sirius said nothing. Finally, curiosity won out. Harry unfolded the parchment, turned it right side up, and read. Sirius watched with anticipation, waiting for his godson's reaction; he wasn't disappointed. Harry's eyes nearly popped out of his head. The teen read the paper once, twice, three times, skimming it a fourth time before looking up at Sirius incredulously. There was a spark of hope in the boy's eyes that Sirius had never seen before, and now that he'd noticed it, he wondered how he'd never realized its absence.

"Sirius," Harry choked out, "Is this…?"

"Serious?" Sirius chuckled. "No; I'm Sirius." Harry snorted. "But, yes, Harry, that is what you think it is."

"But… really?" Sirius watched his godson's expression carefully, looking for any signs that this wasn't what Harry wanted. The glow of excitement surrounding the teen left little doubt in Sirius's mind that he was doing the right thing.

"Really, Prongslet," he promised. "You're never going back to the Dursleys. I've adopted you."

"I get to live with you?" Harry asked, and Sirius almost laughed at the shocked tone of voice. Almost.

"That's right, kiddo," he agreed. Harry's face split into a grin so large that Sirius didn't quite know how a smile that big could even be possible.

"Alright!" Harry whooped. Sirius's heart soared, only to come crashing back to Earth when Harry frowned.

"What's wrong?" he asked, worried.

"Sirius, this is signed by the Ministry of Magic," Harry bit his lip.

"Yes," Sirius agreed, confused.

"It's signed by the Minister of Magic himself, as well as Madam Bones."

"Yes," Sirius said again. Where was Harry going with this?

"Well… they'll recognize your signature, won't they? They'll know you've got me, won't they? They'll come after you!" Harry's voice became increasingly desperate as he spoke, and suddenly Sirius understood. Relieved that Harry wasn't objecting to living with him, Sirius grinned again. The smile caught Harry off guard, and Sirius noticed the cautious look in the boy's eyes.

"That's where the second part of this surprise comes in," Sirius said casually. Harry leaned forward without seeming to realize that he'd moved. "I've been freed," he explained. Harry froze. "Full pardon. Had a trial at the Ministry a few weeks ago. I wanted to tell you in person. They know I'm innocent, Harry!"

There was a moment when Harry didn't react. Sirius watched smugly, waiting for his godson to comprehend what he'd said. And then…

"Sirius!" Harry shouted, the smile back on his face and growing larger than ever. "You're free! You're free!" Sirius was quite sure that Harry didn't know how loud he was talking, but Sirius didn't care. Godfather and godson embraced in a tight hug, both elated.

"Go on and tell Ron and Hermione that I've adopted you," Sirius nudged. Harry's eyes widened again, and in the next moment he was sprinting across the room and out the door. His shouts woke the pictures in the house, but no one complained. Long into the night the celebration went, and nothing could ruin the good mood of the occupants of Grimmauld Place.

**To be continued. **

**I know Harry's a bit OOC in this chapter. I did that on purpose; for one thing, he didn't have to deal with the Dementor attack in the book, which I'm pretty sure had a major impact on his view of things. If it bothers you or if it's too much, please do leave a review and let me know, and I'll tone it down for the next chapter. **

**I didn't really have time to edit/proofread this chapter; I just wanted to get it up. I apologize for any typos or glaring mistakes. **


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